From Arliss’ Staff: I am only a very occasional blogger and I originally started this blog as a test balloon to see if I wanted to start blogging on behalf of the company I own. I had intended to blog for one year and then make a decision. If “yes” then I would stop blogging here and start blogging for my company, if “no” then I would just stop. Ultimately, I decided not to blog for my company but as it turns out, the internet is the Wild West and Arliss definitely had a mind of her own.
Arliss ruminates on revenge.
Arliss was a smart and fabulous rabbit who came to live with me for a year when her permanent staff was working overseas and was unable to bring along a house rabbit. Arilss disapproved of everyone. She especially disapproved of being abandoned in “Just to the Right of Nowhere” for a year. She was bold and brave in ways you cannot imagine a prey animal even considering. Arliss did not back down. She was always right and she was more than capable of getting her way the far greater majority of the time. As a foster home volunteer for the House Rabbit Society for many years I have known many, many rabbits and none of them were anything like Arliss. When Arliss left me to return to “the capital city” as she thought of Indianapolis, she continued to use me as her communications secretary. When she hopped over the Rainbow Bridge, at age thirteen, not unsurprisingly little changed. Arliss’ voice could not be diminished.
When I first started blogging I assumed that, naturally, Arliss’ person might read it and my immediate family might read it (no guarantees there) but, really, who else would care? I blogged about Arliss’ thoughts on rabbit things. I learned to insert graphics, links and polls. For the most part I was just trying out the tools that WordPress offered at the time (it’s SO much better and easier now). Then something happened – Sufi Muslims wanted to build a community center and a small mosque two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center and the GOP went insane. I mean bat-crap insane. The outcry annoyed me greatly but the foolish made the mistake of pushing Arliss too far and that was the beginning of blogging on politics. “Shut-up About the Mosque Already! [With Helpful Illustrations]” turned out to be only the tip of the iced carrot.
From there Arliss went on to posts like “Sarah Palin is a Communist Spy” (written in the innimicable style of Glenn Beck) and “John ‘Cheeto’ Boehner Has a Problem.” This latter turned out to be especially prophetic in that, as the years since have proven, John Boehner made the unfortunate mistake of getting precisely what he asked for, a whole (tea) party of entitled, incendiary idiots. We went through an election cycle. I continued to blog occasionally and life continued to hop along as usual – and then something else happened.
There I was, minding my own business, driving into Cincinnati and listening to Sam Seder’s, The Majority Report, on Stitcher radio. Sam interviewed Dr. Stephanie Kelton, an economist, and she talked about something called “Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).” I got curious. When I got home I started reading. Most of what was available was written for economists by economists but eventually I found a way in and I buried myself in it for several days at the end of which I wrote, “Modern Monetary Theory vs the Fiscal Cliff.” And that is how IT all started. I continued to read and listen to MMT podcasts and YouTube posts and, basically, everything I could get my paws on. It was an immersion. Every so often I would put up another post. I initially posted here at WordPress but there was a more energetic community over at Daily Kos so I started posting there. Only today have I reposted things from there back to here and in all cases if you want to follow the often very vigorous discussion threads you need to click the link and head back to dKos for all of that.
Eventually, I wrote, “The Smart Bunny’s Guide to Debt, Deficit and Austerity,” as an e-book available on Amazon. Next up were regular weekly (Thursdays), and later twice weekly (plus Friday), guest spots on “The After Show” airing on Netroots Radio. By this time virtually all of my public output was related to economics – and I was having a blast. Well…Arliss was having a blast. She became the Netroots Radio Monetary Policy and Financial News Burrow Chief. Of course.
On “The After Show” on Fridays Arliss was always paired up with Will McLeod and that turned out to be a great combination. Will is a smart, well-spoken, millennial guy and Arliss enjoys being in good company. After about a year of that Will and Arliss agreed to take the next step and on 21 September 2015 the first episode of “Hopping Mad with Will McLeod and Arlliss Bunny” will air at 8AM Eastern on Netroots Radio.
Excitement is building here and we can’t wait to begin this next adventure. Sometimes life really is a bowl of endive!
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